Zao Wou-Ki (Zhao Wuji)

Christie's, London, 2 July, 1998, lot 294 
Acquired directly from the above sale by the present owner 

This work is in overall very good condition. There is no apparent inpainting under UV light examination.
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The Mystery and Romance of the Oracle Bone Script
Zao Wou-ki, Il neige

From 1954 to 1958, Zao Wou-ki ventured toward abstractionism through the ancient Chinese oracle bone script. His paintings were freed from a narrative imperative, pressing forward onto an entirely new path to formlessness. This time became known as the artist’s Oracle Bone Period. The paintings from this period of the artist’s career approach a profound simplicity, the colours condensed and mixed and richly textured, creating a mysterious, complex atmosphere, imbuing the abstractionism of Post-war Paris with Eastern elements. In this way, Zao Wou-ki established himself as an artist with a strong, idiosyncratic style in the Western art world. In 1955, Zao Wou-ki was invited to represent France to participate in the Third Biennale of Sao Paulo. At the same time, his work was displayed at the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh during the Fifth Carnegie International Exhibition, where it was awarded an Honourable Mention. It was during this time of the artist’s quick rise that Il neige (Lot 1022)was created.

Flashes of Silver, A Poetic Meditation

The most distinct characteristics of Zao Wou-ki’s Oracle Bone Period are the mysterious, deep, and remote qualities of his artistic conceptions. Across all dimensions of paintings, there is a thrilling charm that draws the viewer in, inviting their curiosity and imagination to linger upon the canvas. The title tells us that Il neige was inspired by a scene of falling snow in a cold landscape, the canvas a richly layered silver-grey, with heavy swathes of ivory, black, and a desolate blue. In the lighter part of the canvas, one catches glimpses of a malt red, generating an atmosphere that evolves from cold to warm as the eyes travel from bottom to top, as well as heavy to light, and dark to bright. In the same year, Zao Wou-ki created another painting of the same dimensions, Nuit-minuit, dominated by a deep, mystifying black, which stands in great contrast to the bright flashes of silver in Il neige. Between Nuit-minuit and Il neige, the viewer can seemingly discern the journey that the artist must have traversed between these two worlds. After a long wandering, a dark exploration of lacquer-black, the artist emerges into a clearing, a daybreak, where the scene suddenly opens up into light. This mood seems to leap from the canvas as clear as words.

Lines of Metal on Stone, The Spirit of Time

In surveying the history of Chinese art, Zao Wou-ki pointed out that, “paintings and poetry are inseparable, and paintings are often accompanied by lines of poetry.” Evidently the artist had discovered early the special significant of the written character in Chinese painting. If the written inscriptions upon traditional paintings can be thought of as a literary influence, then Zao Wou-ki’s oracle bone inscriptions are a return to the natural state of Chinese characters as pure form. In Il neige, not all of the oracle bone characters are rendered completely, having been stripped back to the most primal state of the Chinese character. The artist’s characters approach the age of primitive man rendering figures with spire and stone, engraving the objects of the world with great curiosity and care, setting off the start of civilization. From a young age, Zao Wou-ki was familiar with the oracle and bronze implements collected by his father, marking the genesis of Zao Wou-ki’s aesthetic appreciation of these tools. Beyond the metal-on-stone symbols, the colours of Il neige act almost as a purification of the vicissitudes, the artist’s execution exceptionally mature, resonating with the ancient treasures, thousands of years old, buried beneath the surface, now becoming dazzling flourishes of light after the washings of time.

A Radiant Flash, The Composition Opens and Soars

During the five or so years of the artist’s Oracle Bone Period, Zao Wou-ki’s paintings underwent a subtle transformation. When Il neige was created, although the artist had undergone a revolution in style, the smaller details retained the traces of his earlier work, the most evident example being the painting’s composition. To take a closer look at the arrangement of the painting’s abstract elements, one discovers the starting point of the composition: a character (“月”) resembling the Chinese word for “moon” has been placed at the exact centre of the bottom of the canvas, the oracle bone characters fanning out to its left and right, then surging upward and expanding. This pattern of composition can be seen in many of Zao Wou-ki’s landscape works from the artist’s arrival in France in the early 1950s, such as Piazza (Venice), displayed at the Centre Georges Pompidou, which clearly illustrates the same concept with lines at the centre bottom of the canvas that expand and break open the composition. Zao Wou-ki’s Vent possesses a nearly identical compositional arrangement. But beginning with Il neige, this outward expanding network of lines becomes slightly more concealed, subtler, hidden in harmony within the overall background. In this way, the presences of mysterious and romantic poetry emerge with greater naturalness and freedom.